I have almost finished drinking my latest batch of
Pale Ale and I liked it a lot. However, I think
it is missing something. Here is the recipe:
3.3# John Bull light syrup
2# Mutons light DME
8oz Crystal 60L
1oz Perle pellets 7.6%AA for 60min
1oz Fuggle pellets 5.1%AA for 5 min
Mutons dry ale yeast
Bottled with 5oz corn sugar
I have found this beer missing something and has
something I don't like in the aftertaste.
I plan to do this again changing the recipe some.
Substitute Crystal 20L for the 60L
only use 3/4oz Perle hops for 60min
add 1oz Fuggle hops for 15min
use 1oz Cascade for 2min.
A big change will be using WYEAST #1056, American Ale.
My first try with liquid yeast. I have read that
this will make the biggest difference in beer taste.
Haven't decided, but I might add another pound of
light DME.
Also I plan to keg this beer instead of bottling.
I will let you know if this improves the beer.
Any comments appreciated, actually I desire them.

Try to mash 2-3 pounds of American 2 row with that ale, will do wonders. Mashing is ez, I use a big grain bag and can mash 7 lbs of grain to 88%. Mashing will give your beer a character you'll never belive...

You may want to try dry-hopping your recipe to give it some hop aroma-----I always like that with a pale ale. As for you choice of yeast---I also strongly recommend liquid yeast over dry and I especially like the results I have gotten from using white labs yeast although it is not as readily available as wyeast.

I made this beer. 3.52lbs syrup, 2lbs DME, and
8oz 20L Crushed Crystal (steeped); hops are as
described in the first post. I took the
original gravity and it came out very low.
1.038
I just got a new hydrometer, so it may be off.
However, I will check the beer after fermentation
and if it is still low, then I can adjust numbers
easily. If not, I wonder what I might have done
that caused such a low OG?
The calculator summed up 1.045-1.055 for the OG.
The temperature of the wort was about 75`F.
I have taken hydrometer readings at this
temperature before and not been that far off.
Anybody have a guess as to what I may have done?

The original gravity is calculated from the weight of extract and the volume of water. If your gravity was low then it is possible that the volume entered in the calculator is less than the actual volume brewed. It is important to get the water volume exactly right for an accurate result. This is the volume of wort after all ingredients have been added and the boil is complete.
1.038 @ 75

Water volume could have something to do with it.
I started out with 3.5 gallons of water in my
brewpot, but after boiling and cooling it was
less than 3 gallons as measured in my fermenter.
I added water to make 5 gallons.
Next batch I will brew with 4 gallons instead of
3.5. Perhaps that will help even things out.
Thanks

Well, it's bottling day.
FG 1.011, and smells clean.
Tasted the sample from the hydrometer vial
and it is good. So after all the worrying
and fretting that I had not hit anywhere
close to center mass with this one was unwarented.
This is close to what I want my house beer to
be. So far.
Oh yeah, contrary to the original post,
I bottled instead of kegged.